The Ruling Elite of Singapore: Networks of Power and Influence
Michael Barr
London: I.B. Tauris, 2014
ISBN: 9781780762340

The Republic of Singapore was born on 9 August 1965 through a formal act of separation from the Federation of Malaysia. It was greeted by many with fireworks in the streets, but by the end of the year it appeared that Singapore would have to seek re-entry on humiliating terms. Then, shortly after National Day celebration in 1966, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew delivered a seminal speech. Setting out the fundamental principles on which Singapore's national ideology and founding mythology were to rest, Lee promised a hierarchical and unashamedly elitist society, whose harsh edges were justified in the short term by the urgent need to work for Singapore's survival. In effect, he was presenting a blueprint for the manufacture of the elite that has ruled ever since.

Michael Barr explores the complex and covert networks of power at work in one of the world's most prosperous countries - the city-state of Singapore. He argues that the contemporary networks of power result from a deliberate project initiated and managed by Lee Kuan Yew - Singapore's 'founding father' - designed to empower himself and his family. By tracing the evolutionary changes that have occurred in these networks, as well as the durable patterns that underlie them, the author is able to cast fresh light on the existing elite. He identifies the crucial institutions of power - including the cabinet, the military, the country's sovereign wealth funds, and the government-linked companies - and five critical features that provide the key to understanding the nature and character of the networks of power. The author concludes with an assessment of possible shifts of power within the elite in the wake of Lee Kuan Yew's son, Lee Hsien Loong, assuming power, and considers the possibility of a more fundamental democratic shift in Singapore's political system. The result is a powerful and revealing insight into one of the world's leading financial centres that will be essential reading for all those seeking to understand present and future power relationships in Singapore politics and society.